Gaming

Leaders such as EA's Andrew Wilson and Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick spoke at the ESA's new iicon conference, and SBJ's Jason Wilson shares the best insights from onstage. Also: Pac-Man turns 45 and celebrates with a "Chompetition" harkening back to old-school gaming competitions.

A roundup of sports and esports game industry and business news for the May 8, 2026, SBJ Gaming newsletter.

You don’t often get major game leaders such as EA’s Andrew Wilson, Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick and Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot in the same city at the same time, let alone the same room. The Entertainment Software Association pulled off the feat last week at iicon, its new game conference in Las Vegas.

MLB: The Show was March's best-selling game, per Circana, and it was also the series second-best launch ever, only slightly trailing 2021's debut. Also: A lacrosse game appears!

A roundup of sports video game industry news from Sports Business Journal and other outlets for the April 24, 2026, SBJ Gaming newsletter.

Sony’s MLB: The Show 26 enjoyed the franchise’s second-strongest launch since the series’ debut in 2006, per data from market research firm Circana.

A roundup of sports gaming business and development news from Sports Business Journal and other outlets for the April 10, 2026, SBJ Gaming newsletter.

Elijah Haven is the top-rated QB in high school football, and he's signing up as a Gen/EA Sports athlete, as EA looks for ways to build long-term relationships. Also in SBJ Gaming for April 6: Hasbro works with FIFA for the first time for board games and Valorant's esports reset and new sponsors.

ExpressVPN, HP/HyperX, Zowie and Samsung are signing up as sponsors of the Valorant Championship Tour Americas, joining existing sponsors Red Bull, Secretlab, Verizon and Pulsar as Riot Games reorganizes the esports scene for its online shooter.

Hasbro is working on its first sports activation for FIFA for the Men’s World Cup under the Monopoly and Connect 4 banners as part of the toy company’s long history for special editions of games.

The Gen/EA Sports program added its youngest athlete yet in Elijah Haven, the No. 1 QB in 247Sports’ 2027 class of high school players (and second-ranked overall). He joins a group that includes Jaguars WR/CB Travis Hunter, Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson (she was with Angel City FC when first signed), Re...

League of Legends’ Worlds 2026 championship tournament is returning to the U.S., with early stages in L.A. and Allen, Texas, and the finals at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

IdPair, a platform acting as a data infrastructure layer to support safer gambling habits, has closed an institutional funding round led by Roger Ehrenberg’s Game Changers Ventures. An amount was not disclosed with SBJ.

We’re seeing a trio of baseball milestones at the moment: The World Baseball Classic, the upcoming MLB season and Tuesday’s launch of MLB: The Show 26. With all these happenings, I wanted to check in on playing and sales trends around Sony’s baseball series in Japan, especially with the “Shohei Ohta...

The March 13, 2026, SBJ Gaming newsletter reports on Ubisoft's first partnership

The Global Gaming League made its splash over the summer, and after running ads with iHeartRadio (I first heard these on, of all things, the “Behind the Bastards” podcast), it’s signed a deal with the media company. GGL and iHeartRadio negotiated the deal directly, without any outside agencies. GGL’...

Here’s something I hope we see more of on the esports scene: multigame competitions. Throw in a relay race-style setup with classic names that were once the biggest in gaming, like StarCraft? That’s even better.

The Feb. 27, 2026, SBJ Gaming news covers Sega Football Club Champions celebrating its 30th year with a global release, Rocket League's Boston Major's milestone, the and boost NASCAR saw from the Daytona 500 for its gaming efforts.

The Rocket League Championship Series Major at Boston University’s Agganis Arena was another sellout (5,000 each day) Saturday and Sunday. Now, sellouts aren’t news for Blast events — they often choose venues that fit their crowds. Setting viewership marks, however, doesn’t happen at every event.

The Daytona 500 on Feb. 15 saw a viewership bounce for NASCAR, and per the governing body, the Cup Series season-opening race provided a bounce for its video game efforts as well in NASCAR 25, eNASCAR and Roblox’s Driving Empire.